Sunday, January 15, 2012

Screens of the day 20 - Casserole

Even though I am not a home, I managed to get a little thing done. I tried my hand at some modelling. I am not a 3D modeler and things are best left to the professionals like BrewStew and Tor, but I probably won't be able to rely on others for everything.

So I modeled this:


Right now you are probably thinking "What super awesome game feature calls for that thing? What is it? Some kind of a container? Maybe a coffin? OMG! Snapshot 3 is going to have combat!". Well, I walked into the kitchen, looked at the first object I saw that was not very simple and then tried to recreate it from memory. It is a casserole.

Blender allows you to render you models using different effects. This render is done with smoothing to make the polygons less visible:


Of course, a smooth operation can loose some fine detail, so I had to go in and adjust the mesh a little, getting this final result:


If you look carefully at the edges and the little ear used to open the casserole you will see that it is more detailed, less blurry and easier to identify the shape.

Now let's see how it looks in game. For some strange reason when exporting this mesh I must face the normals in the opposite direction as all the other meshes I have. Must be some weird Blender beginner's error. But still the result ain't half bad:


But after playing around with smoothing and export options I managed to get this result:


This is so much better! I don't know exactly what I did. First I must see if I can reproduce it. And apply it to other shapes. I don't have the necessary tools right now with me to determine what impact this change has on item complexity and performance. But there is a small chance that things are going to start looking a lot better from now on! And if not here maybe in my next game!

11 comments:

  1. Wait, are you abandoning the stonesense-graphics 2D version and making it all 3D then?

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  2. Well, basically, yes! Why do you think for the last month everything was about 3D engines on the blog.

    But there is no good reason to abandon the 2D one because it worked perfectly and had substantially lower system requirements (netbook or better) except for that I don't have the resources to maintain two versions.

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  3. Aww man, that's a real shame. I love Stonesense graphics, and it would make the game run so much faster. Also modelling all 3D assets and characters will take an insane amount of time, and will end up looking worse.

    Come on mate, give the 2D version a chance, and I'll help you myself with the 3D models for free (i do that sort of thing fairly proficiently).

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    Replies
    1. Well for me it was a huge problem getting an original tileset. I tried for months everything from doing it myself to trying to pay for them. No luck! Modelling things is a lot easier. Texturing on the other hand is hard.

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  4. But why can't you use the Stonesense tileset? Don't they give your permission to use use? AFAIK it's free.

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    Replies
    1. I could have. But I wanted to carve out my own identity.

      Plus Stonesense tiles were not enough. I needed a lot more, plus probably a higher resolution set too because these tiles were too small for large screen resolutions.

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  5. Man, please please, keep a Stonesense graphics version, as even without high-res, the sprite pool keeps getting updated all the time, and it's by far the most compelte source of DF graphics. It also looks darn good, and most DF fans have grown used to it by now.

    In return I'll do some graphics for you, including player models if you wish. I'm not much of a texturer either, but I'm darn good at low poly meshes.

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  6. I'm sorry, but I have to say no to Stonesense tiles. But I could go for a brand new original tileset. It can be similar to Stoneese, but with a separate style. But keep in mind that I need at least a 48x48 pixel version and a 32x32 one. Maybe even a 52/56 one. I have proven that you can't have free form smooth CPU based zoom, so I'll settle for a few fixed sizes. About 2000-3000 tiles per set, but some like terrain can be done with a lot of recoloring.

    I have had zero luck even buying such a tileset. So if you think you can help me by researching what alternatives exist, you are welcome to it.

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  7. In that case I don't think there are many alternatives. There are some good free isometric terrain tilesets lying around, but none of 'em fully covers the diversity of dwarf fortress, obviously. I wouldn't mind helping you myself, but unfortunately I'm not good at pixel art. If you would still like to consider a 2D version I suggest you try posting a request at Way of the Pixel or Pixeljunk.

    Still I might have some old models you might want to take a look at. I'll dig 'em up later and post 'em some other time.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much!

      Is there somehow I can you except "Anonymous"?

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    2. "I can call you", that's what I wanted to say.

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